This delicate Valentine card has been made by hand, with the text handwritten, some decoration drawn and some pasted in, using print clippings. It combines two formats, that of the paper peepshow and that of the Valentine card. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, as cheaper paper and new printing technique became available, making valentines became an industry that continued to grow throughout the century. The advent of the standardised penny postal service added yet another boost to this industry.

The paper lace technique adopted here was discovered in 1834. Lace had been hugely popular in the eighteenth century and fell out of fashion in the early decades of the nineteenth century. It was, however, soon revitalised, partly owing to Queen Victoria having chosen a lace dress as her wedding dress in 1840. The lace effect on these cards would have struck a chord with the fashionably clad.

The paper peepshow functions here more like an additional feature to the Valentine’s card, to add a pop-up element to the card. In this sense, this work should be particularly familiar to our modern eyes as it shares much with today’s pop-up cards and novelty books.